Video: Radioactive Floods Recontaminate Japan

Last week a serious typhoon hit eastern Japan creating flooding that has not occurred for at least 50 years. Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator and owner of the triple meltdown site Fukushima Daiichi, admitted that drainage pumps at Fukushima failed and radioactive water once again poured into the Pacific. But what about the extraordinary amount of radioactive cesium, strontium, and other isotopes spread hundreds of miles from the nuclear catastrophe site yet to be cleaned up and now displaced by the flood into newly contaminated villages?

I agree with unpacified, god only knows how blinded people are to the effects of radiation.
Just because its not in the news doesnt mean its not dangerous.

The only reason why Japan is probably covering this stuff up is because they know that their exports arent likely to pick up and the future of the country and its people doesnt seem to have any other alternative than to stall the inevitable.

Its a shame, Id never want the Japanese to perish for anyreason. All the best robotic tech comes out of there.

I don’t think people are blinded. Like the Ostrich, a large majority think that if they ignore it, it will go away or will not hurt them. When I bring up the topic people get angry. One guy said to me once; “I just can’t live that way”, meaning he only wanted to talk about positive subjects. His feeling was that people who address this issue are like “Debbie Downer” or “Bob Bummer.” He just wants to go along happily not thinking about it. Most will move forward like this and if someday the general populace realizes they should have spoken up but it’s too late, they will say “Well, no one told me it was that serious.” To which we could say: “We did. You just didn’t want to hear it.”

Thanks for this site. I’m in Florida, USA and you would think that none of this is, or has been going on, for a few years now. In itself, that is simply beyond my comprehension. Not to mention the hell that rules at the site itself. My blessings to all over there.

There were considerable differences between Chernobyl and Fukushima.
In the case of Chernobyl the overriding of safety functions and the lack of containment meant that a large amount of the core material was released. This was easily detected around the world and a lot of probably unnecessary precautions were put in place.
In Fukushima the containment structures worked as designed and retained almost all of the radioactive material. Some gaseous material was released, notably Iodine and Cesium.
A lot of people, especially on the west coast of America, have been trying to find traces of radioactivity from Fukushima, generally with little success. A lot of people are trying to make out that it is a ‘end of the world’ disaster. Some of these are also making money out of this scaremongering as the green activist George Monbiot discovered to his horror.

So in answer to your questions: For most of the world there is nothing of interest going on in Fukushima, so it is not being reported. Work is steadily ongoing at the Fukushima site to clean up the damage, store and process the radioactive materials and decommission the site.

What is also not being reported is the very slow recovery work on the rest of the tsunami damage, which resulted in the deaths of around 20,000 people, and the 100s of thousands of people still displaced.

GlowingInTheDark,
A good question which I will try to answer in two different ways.

1) How are the other people on here qualified to make the statements that they have? Here are the next two posts in the thread:

Scott
October 13, 2015 at 7:16 pm · Reply
The containment vessels did not work. There is zero containment in reactor 2 and it has had a full meltdown. All fuel is outside containment. I’m not an expert but I can’t imagine good things are going to happen if it reaches a water table.

hawkenfox
October 20, 2015 at 3:42 am · Reply
To date they have failed to contain the radioactive stuff and it has totally disappeared in No. 2 reactor. They are suspecting that it has melted through the containment unit into earth itself. The ground water in the area will contaminated and so would the open sea in the immediate region. Though some have argued that celsium isn’t so deadly in the water. I guess it’s up to the individual to decide who to believe, in this world some are not paid to tell the truth and some are paid to hide the truth.

According to both of these the containment on reactor 2 has failed. Is this credible? Where is the evidence? The current information from the muon camera investigation is that the core material is no longer in it’s original location, which is to be expected as the core has melted. The muon camera is unable currently to look lower down to see if the core material is at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel or at the bottom of the containment. (Don’t just take my word on this look it up and see what you find).

The author of this piece, Arnie Gunderson of Fairwinds, makes his money from promoting nuclear doom and gloom. How is he actually qualified to make the statements he does? Where are his measurements and references?

“But what about the extraordinary amount of radioactive cesium, strontium, and other isotopes spread hundreds of miles from the nuclear catastrophe site”

Is a good emotive statement, are there measurements to back this up? What is extraordinary?

2) I am an engineer working with radiation processing of polymers. When I started out in this field I was naturally concerned about “Radiation” and the potential health effects on me. As the responsible engineer I also had to answer a lot of safety related questions from other people involved and on site.
This was back in 1982 so I had to search libraries for books on the subject, find copies of research papers, generally reading everything I could find. The internet has now made this research a bit easier in one way as a lot more information is available but it is also harder to determine the credibility of the sources.

What I found was that at higher levels of radiation, especially delivered over a short space of time, there was general agreement that more than 10 Sv was fatal, above 2-3 Sv had immediate but possibly survivable health effects and above 0.1 Sv the risk of cancer increased. For lower levels of radiation there was almost complete polarization. One group states that the effects of low level radiation are proportionately greater that the effects of higher levels (micro dosimetry, bystander effect) and the other group states that low level radiation is harmless and possibly beneficial (Hormesis). The regulatory authorities apply a simple linear model, LNT, that both groups disagree with. (Once again don’t take my word for this, research it).

I then started widening my studies to natural radiation and it’s effects. As part of my job I have access to sensitive radiation measuring equipment so I don’t just have to believe what is written, I can go and measure lumps of rock, brazil nuts etc. What became clear quite quickly here was that significant variations in natural background radiation don’t appear to cause any health problems, although quite a few people are looking for them. What also become apparent was that a lot of the regulatory limits were actually less than the higher natural levels. (Once again do some research, look at natural background radiation levels and also the amount of natural radioactive material in the human body).

After Chernobyl I started looking at nuclear power plants and their design and safety elements as well as at basic reactor physics. There are a lot of safety elements built into current reactor designs with multiple layers of protection to avoid/reduce the escape of radioactive materials. When the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan I read everything I could find on the subject and noticed the same polarization, often involving the same people as with low level radiation. Some reports contained measurements and references, others like Gunderson’s above were just full of emotive words with no data. Have a look at what is written and make up your own mind what is credible and what is not. Look at the realities. Are there thousands of deaths? Is the Pacific a sterile waste? Has all the wildlife died around Chernobyl?

So what are my qualifications to make statements with such authority? What authority? I am reporting what I find to be factual. What is factual? Nothing is really factual, but when statements can be backed up with references and data then they are as close as you are likely to get. I can look at a drawing of a PWR and see the layers of protection, fuel cladding, reactor pressure vessel, containment. I can look at a drawing of a RBMK (Chernobyl) and see that there is no containment. This is probably factual.

Best regards and happy research

Roger

JanJanuary 4, 2016 at 5:47 pm ·

Hello Roger!
You seemed to be writing or possibly knowing a lot.
I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Fukushima catastrophy.
What I found was two different opinions, one being the “Oh my god the world is going to end”-Opinion and the other one being the “Hey guys, everything is fine. The fish around Fukushima are totally edible and there is no concern to eat food in Japan at all.”-Opinion.
Nothing in between.
That fact made me extremely curious.
There are numerous opinions about the Japanese Media – covering up, most of them full of claims tough, I have to agree.
But there are also some things that cannot be ignored.

I’ve never spent so much time researching a specific topic in my whole life, since I really want to visit Japan, but first I wanted to check if it is safe for me to do so.
Now it’s more than that, I want to know the truth.
I’ve been talking to people like “Georg Steinhauser”, a self-called “independant” scientist, who was at the power plant after the disaster had happened and was one of the first to collect data there.
He said that he has absolutely no concerns whatsoever and even went to local “community-supermarkets” in Fukushima, only eating thinfs produced from the farmers in the Fukushima area.
The result was, there was little to no “radioactivity” in his body, he said.
It seems a little bit odd though, just thinking about the subject.
Researchers will always find what they are told to find.
If people should not have evidence, it is hard to have any, isn’t it?
There have been many stories about scientists getting bothered while collecting data or being held back even.
Thus, I dont think the data collected there is completely reliable.
They only show what is supposed to be shown, or am I mistaking?
It also makes a lot of sense to cover up the real significance of this issue, from the Japanese governments perspective, hence it would ruin Japans whole export economy.
But im now sitting here, thinking of making my dream come true. (which is going to Japan…)
And I would like to hear your opinion about that, you sure seem to know a lot more than me, especially because I am definetly not qualified as a physicist nor hobby physicist..
That is probably the biggest deficite I suffer while researching.
I know more and more about radioactivity, but I am nowhere near the knowledge that is required to read and conclude from scientific data.
I am just asking about visiting, and possible health risks.

Of course the release of radiation into the atmosphere and the pacific is the real issue, but even there, what matters is evidence and facts, not this “the world is going to end” drama.
There are many things that “should have happened”, but never did.
Our fucked up financial system is still moooore or less working (People expected it to crash for very evident reasons a long time ago), but let’s not open up another debate.
From what I know people always tend to somehow balance on the knifes edge so far.
Is that the case with Fukushima too? hmmm..
Most scientists only know much about the technical -and not biological stuff going on in the body, therefore I would like to know your general opinion about going to Japan and eating the food there, not talking about visiting Fukushima directly and the area around of course..

I would love to see your answer, since it took some time writing all this stuff.
All the best!

The containment vessels did not work. There is zero containment in reactor 2 and it has had a full meltdown. All fuel is outside containment. I’m not an expert but I can’t imagine good things are going to happen if it reaches a water table.

To date they have failed to contain the radioactive stuff and it has totally disappeared in No. 2 reactor. They are suspecting that it has melted through the containment unit into earth itself. The ground water in the area will contaminated and so would the open sea in the immediate region. Though some have argued that celsium isn’t so deadly in the water. I guess it’s up to the individual to decide who to believe, in this world some are not paid to tell the truth and some are paid to hide the truth.

I’m on the west coast and I don’t sit with a geiger counter “hoping” for a reading. I care about what is going on in the environment that will be sustaining my kids, and generations to follow.
Are you reading any of these articles? Where did the fuel go in Reactor #2? A large amount of core material was released. Where? It would show up in the containment somewhere, but it doesn’t. Which leaves two choices. The ground and the sea.
We don’t have to do “the sky is falling”, but this does give pause for concern.

Thank you so much for this! I bought a couch without realizing it was made of feathers. To make a long story short, the Internet scared me into believing feathers harbor radiation from Fukushima and I’ve been terrified for my two babies!! I paid ALOT for this couch and they refuse to allow me to return it, so just throwing it out isn’t feasible, even though the thought of those poor ducks is depressing!! Your knowledge on the subject has calmed me down – so thank you!!!

Compared to Chernobyl, the fukushima’s incident is much bigger than the former. The coverup may very well be to keep japan’s economy going. Truth is the disaster is so big it’s better to not tell the whole truth because it will only cause panic. I think sometimes with such even those who are really blessed are the ignorant.

International effort is required to get control of this dangerous express train.
We are all exposed to the high levels of the Nuclear Radiation being released from Fukushima
Long term damage to our planet is accumulating, affecting everything and everyone.
This event is more urgent and damaging than Global Warming and turning away, minimizing and denial by government hastens the inevitable end if nothing is done. Sad but true.

Reid,
Please can you quantify “We are all exposed to the high levels of the Nuclear Radiation being released from Fukushima” as no one else seems to be able to find them? Traces which are below normal background levels are found using very sensitive equipment, but nothing significant has been found, unlike Chernobyl.

OH Come on!!! Mr.Roger … and all other doubters due to limited info given. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to logically deduct that vast amounts of military grade radioactive isotopes are running wild in the sea air and landing on land! Possibly even more plutonium than was admitted. U don’t have to be a professor to understand that highly poisonous particles have and are being released into the air OF THE WHOLE WORLD going all around it in a matter of 44 days … Every 40 days a world wide plume of immensely toxic waste being spread so as to downplay the seriousness of the accident. Scientists apparently have hardly any equipment to measure exactly all the the types of radioactive nuclides and all the different isotopes they will keep spewing for hundreds of years to come! Because the contamination is even worse in the Pacific and much bigger, it is kept quiet. It is hoped that a lot of us are so stupid we will think the ocean will dilute the poison, so it will not be as bad. WRONG! No evidence shows that it is ever possible to dilute these toxins with water! Most people think this apparently! It will spread over a bigger area, making identification harder and harder over time… but not less deadly at all!! A time lag is artificially introduced to muffle away the effects of the disaster… And the 3 cores that are presumably burning their way to the center of earth.. will it be picked up by lava fields? My guess it will go around the inner belts of the earth and contaminate all it encounters. We can not let ourselves be treated as a child to small or dumb to have all the info… We have to get off our knees!! Best case scenario is that the coria get swallowed by the lava fields and neutralised … Maybe thats what the Japanese government or the not so secret any more one world government thinks … Mount Fuji San could be used to generate geo thermo energy and Japan’ would be able to provide power for its immediate Asian surroundings!! For a long long long time … studies showed about 4000 years easy …